How can we create recursive functions in Python?

Recursion is a programming method, in which a function calls itself one or more times in its body. Usually, it is returning the return value of this function call. If a function definition follows recursion, we call this function a recursive function.

A recursive function has to terminate to be used in a program. It terminates, if with every recursive call the solution of the problem is becomes smaller and moves towards a base case, where the problem can be solved without further recursion. A recursion can lead to an infinite loop, if the base case is not met in the calls.

Example

The following code returns the sum of first n natural numbers using a recursive python function.

def sum_n(n):
    if n== 0:
        return 0
    else:
        return n + sum_n(n-1)

This prints the sum of first 100 natural numbers and first 500 natural numbers

print(sum_n(100))
print(sum_n(500))

 Output

C:/Users/TutorialsPoint1/~.py
5050
125250

Rajendra Dharmkar

Updated on 13-Feb-2020 06:02:27

• Related Questions & Answers
• What are MySQL stored functions and how can we create them?
• How we can store Python functions in a Sqlite table?
• How can we combine functions in MySQL?
• How we can create singleton class in Python?
• Do recursive functions in Python create a new namespace each time the function calls itself?
• How can we create MySQL views?
• How can we calculate the Date in MySQL using functions?
• How can we distinguish between MySQL IFNULL() and NULLIF() functions?
• Auxiliary Space with Recursive Functions in C Program?
• How can we create multicolumn UNIQUE indexes?
• How we can create a dictionary from a given tuple in Python?
• How can we create a custom exception in Java?
• How can we create a login form in Java?
• Can we create nested TitiledBorder in Java?
• How can we stuff a string with another one using MySQL functions?